The present invention pertains to systems and devices and methods for interfering with or preventing remote or external monitoring of discrete electric power supply systems such as a residential electrical power delivery system.
Remote or external monitoring of electric power delivery systems is commonly referred to as Nonintrusive Load Monitoring (NILM). This includes processes for analyzing changes in parameters such as the voltage and current going into a power delivery system such as a house electrical system and deducing what appliances are used in the house as well as their individual energy consumption. Electric meters with NILM technology are used by utility companies to survey the specific uses of electric power in individual homes and other discrete users and spaces. This monitoring is accomplished without entering the space served by the monitored electric power system and without knowledge of the powered devices connected to the system. For this reason, static, repetitive, and unique electrical characteristics are what NILM technology requires to identify and track a discrete component or appliance.
A load profile or power system signal is the overall representation of the electrical data for a specific location in a power delivery system. Gathering such a profile or signal might be the objective of a monitoring NILM “Smart” device. The Smart monitoring device may be a utility meter or a recording device attached to the delivery system internally or externally, known or unknown to the location being monitored.
A load profile or power system signal is a product of the impedance characteristics and operating history of all the electrical elements making up and connected to a power system. Discerning information from a load profile typically requires disaggregation. Disaggregation, the process of separating the load profile information into discernable and discrete electrical loads and appliances can reveal appliance signatures, as one device clearly identified from its On/initial energized state through its normal operation and until its shutdown/off state. The appliance signature depends upon the NILM devices parameters chosen to gain the profiles and signatures, and is an assemblage of one to several electrically measurable changing parameters over time that can be perceived external to the device/appliance on the electrical delivery system. When the parameters are analyzed, they can potentially reveal the device or appliances' identity, its type and potentially specific model, as well as its usage time, status (such as faulty or healthy) and power consumption.
Various different electric load parameters may be discerned from a load profile through disaggregation, including for example: current; voltage; real, reactive, and apparent Power; (KW, KVAR, VA); admittance; harmonics; electrical noise at start, stop, and during runtime; DC Bias current; peak voltage and/or current levels during start-up; duration of start-up transients; shape of start-up and shut-down transients; and power factor.
For a variety of reasons including maintaining privacy and security within a personal or commercial space receiving electrical power from an independent party source, it is desirable to be able to limit or prevent NILM technology from being applied to the associated power delivery system.
What is desired is a device, method or system that may be introduced to a conventional electrical power delivery system to mask, hide, or otherwise make indiscernible the discrete elements of a powered system and thereby disable or prevent detection and monitoring from externally connected systems.